Hannibal attorney arrested Wednesday in Shelby County, Friday morning at Marion County Courthouse

HANNIBAL, Mo. — A Hannibal attorney was arrested twice this week, with the second arrest happening Friday morning at the Marion County Courthouse while he was in the middle of a hearing.

Tyler White, 33, was representing clients in traffic cases in Marion County Associate Circuit Court before Judge Brad Funk when he was removed from a second-floor courtroom and escorted from the courthouse by two Missouri State Highway Patrol officers. About 30 people waiting for their cases to be heard were outside the courtroom and saw White escorted down the stairs.

Sgt. Justin Dunn with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said White is in the Shelby County Jail in Shelbina on a 24-hour investigative hold. White is suspected to have been the driver of a vehicle in a crash in Shelby County. Dunn said the investigation began on Sept. 13.

Attempts to get information from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office were unsuccessful Friday morning.

White also was arrested in Shelby County on Wednesday.

White is representing Robert S. Neiner of Perry in a driving while intoxicated case from January in Monroe City Municipal Court. A document filed Monday in Monroe County Circuit Court by Judge Talley Smith said White was present for a pre-trial conference on Sept. 10, but he said he had not yet filed pre-trial motions. 

Another hearing was set for Sept. 13, but White failed to appear. A show cause hearing — an opportunity to explain to a judge why a person is not doing as ordered — was set for Sept. 16, but White failed to appear for that hearing as well.

Smith then filed a writ of bodily attachment to any law enforcement agency in Missouri that read, “You are hereby commanded to take the body of Tyler White … if he may be found in your county and to keep him safely so that he may be brought before the Honorable Judge Smith, Monroe County Circuit Court, at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 24 … to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court for his failure to appear as ordered by the court.”

Bond was ordered at $50,000.

A representative with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Friday that White was taken into custody on the writ of bodily attachment by Shelby County Sheriff’s Department deputies on Wednesday during Law Day at the Shelby County Courthouse in Shelbyville. Monroe County deputies later transported White to the Monroe County Courthouse. After he was arrested, White paid his bond and was released.